quantum light speed computers, billion times faster

[sdowney717]

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/200...runc_sys.shtml

The result could be a computer that performs some tasks a billion times faster than today's supercomputers, using relatively simple technology that's already well understood. The research behind the device was revealed at the Lasers and Electro-Optics Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference in Baltimore, Md.

I read about this before and wonder if we will see this in less than 20 years. Think how obsolete all your highest end hardware will become once again.
It never pays to buy the best. I am always about 3 to 5 years behind.

[Sean Moran]

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/200...runc_sys.shtml

I read about this before and wonder if we will see this in less than 20 years. Think how obsolete all your highest end hardware will become once again.
It never pays to buy the best. I am always about 3 to 5 years behind.

What are they going to do about speeding up the user? If not for the slovenly Internet, that's the weak link in the processing-speed chain nowdays I reckon.

[sdowney717]

I am thinking things will just become more instant.

also, perhaps 3d holographic image where instead of a flat screen, you will see a 3d projection. That would be interesting.
so imagine you look at an object, and you can really see it as if it were there in all its dimensions.

[3Miro]

The idea of a quantum computer is not new, however, it would take quite some time to get there. It would take even more time to get quantum computers as a main-stream thing.

The significance of quantum computers would be in the scientific world. There are many important and useful problems that we simply cannot solve because we don't have enough computing power. (on the other hand, we also have problems too hard for quantum computers)

[beew]

The idea of a quantum computer is not new, however, it would take quite some time to get there. It would take even more time to get quantum computers as a main-stream thing.

The significance of quantum computers would be in the scientific world. There are many important and useful problems that we simply cannot solve because we don't have enough computing power. (on the other hand, we also have problems too hard for quantum computers)

Not computing power, but time. Quantum computing allows massive parallel computing by exploiting quantum effects, with this you can for example factorize large numbers into prime factors within reasonable time. This will, for example, crack the RSA encryption.

[Chronon]

It's hard to get a real idea of what's being proposed in that article. It seems like this may not be a quantum computer per se. It sounds like it simply benefits from massive parallelism (like quantum computers would) but is basically a classical system. This seems analogous to the ideas behind using optics to compute Fourier transforms (such as here).

Maybe this is an antecedent to optical quantum computing. I just noticed the date is 2001 (which is actually the same year of the publication of KLM scheme for linear optical quantum computing). I'm pretty sure the person who presented this isn't working on this anymore.

[MasterNetra]

I am thinking things will just become more instant.

also, perhaps 3d holographic image where instead of a flat screen, you will see a 3d projection. That would be interesting.
so imagine you look at an object, and you can really see it as if it were there in all its dimensions.

You mean something like this?:

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_underk...a_gesture.html

[3Miro]

Not computing power, but time. Quantum computing allows massive parallel computing by exploiting quantum effects, with this you can for example factorize large numbers into prime factors within reasonable time. This will, for example, crack the RSA encryption.

More CPUs does mean more power. Even on desktop, speed per core doesn't grow nearly as much as total speed considering all cores.

[sydbat]

I just noticed the date is 2001

I guess you and I are the only two to notice this.

[Giraffemonster]

I guess you and I are the only two to notice this.

That's disappointing. If only this were to come true, and then become mainstream. I also sort of agree with the OP on not buying the very best hardware, because of the fast rate technology advances.